The Road Ahead
by ProjectAuthor
Summary: Short story following Carl Grimes after the dead of his father, Rick Grimes. What path will he take? Rated M for Language, Violence, and possible Sexual situations. Read and Review!
1. Death In The Family

**AN: I do not own The Walking Dead. This story is going to follow Carl Grimes after the death of his father, Rick Grimes. Please read and review. Hope you enjoy!**

Terminus has fallen. Between an all out war with the hunters and walkers, the train station was now painted tragically. Bodies everywhere, friends and foes. Walkers tore at the fallen bodies and continued to pour in to the gated Terminus through a break in the fences. It was different from the last war that took place at the prison. Everyone was dead. If there were survivors, they were no where to be seen.

Carl and a wounded Rick Grimes make their way to the fences of Terminus in hopes to get outside the gates. The walkers are on their trail and slowly begin to close the distance between them. Rick had been shot in the back and was completely immobile. Carl, holding his fathers weight while trying to lose the walkers, makes it to the fence.

"Come on, dad. You gotta help me get you over."

Rick hangs limp from his son's shoulder with an arm hooked around the boys neck.

Carl pulls at his dad, trying to move him closer to the gate. "Dad, we're here. We just have to make it over the gate. . ."

Carl begins to release Rick only for him to fall limply off his shoulder. "Dad!" he shouts quickly catching his father before he hits the ground.

"Dad?"

The boy shakes the man's head back to see his eyes closed. "Dad!?"

Carl's eyes fill with tears and he begins shaking him aggressively, "DAD!?"

Still no response from Rick. He was gone.

"No! No! No!" Carl said sobbing still trying to shake the man awake.

Carl sat holding his father's body on the ground, crying over the corpse.

The walkers continued to close in on him.

Carol runs down the opposite side of the fence, trying to get away from the aftermath. She stops when she spots Carl on the inside of the fence holding his father while walkers approach him. The woman slowly walks up to the gate behind the boy and places a hand on the diamond shaped holes on the fence.

"My god. . Carl, I'm so sorry."

The boy doesn't even turn around to see who it is.

She glances around to the incoming walkers on his side of the fence. "He's gone, Carl. You need to come on, there isn't much time," Carol insists to the grieving boy.

Carl looks up from his father's dead body with tear-filled eyes. "GO! Just leave me here!" The boy sobbed.

"You're not thinking clear right now. Your dad wouldn't want you to stay here and get yourself killed," Carol said trying to reason with him. "Carl, we need to go."

Carl stands to his feet and reaches down to grab what used to be his father. He curls one of the man's arms around his shoulder and begins trying to climb the fence while holding his dad.

"Carl. . " She knew he wasn't able to do it, she just didn't want to tell him no. She had a lot of respect for Rick and his family and she couldn't bring herself to say anything.

Carl takes a step up the fence before his father slides off his shoulder and hits the ground. The boy turns around and just begins weeping again.

The zombies are moving in closer, somewhat cornering Carl against the fence and his fathers body.

"'m so sorry about your dad, son. But you have to leave him. He wouldn't want you doing this!" She called out hoping the boy would save himself instead of dying trying to do the impossible.

Tears fall from the boy's cheek landing on the fallen leader's chest beneath him. "I'm so sorry, dad. . . I love you," he cried one last time before giving him a hug and turning towards the fence and jumping up to climb up it.

He gets half-way up the fence before the undead reach Rick's body and begins tearing it apart. Carl continues climbing, refusing to look down at the scene. As soon as he throws a leg over the top, a walker grabs his other and begins jerking him down. Carl quickly latches on to the fence to catch himself from falling back over.

Carol quickly pulls her pocket knife from her belt and flicks it open. She waits for the perfect moment to stab it through one of the diamond-shaped holes to hit the walker directly in the eye socket. Blood squirts out over her face and walker drops, releasing its grip on Carl.

Upon release, the momentum causes Carl to fall from the top of the fence and land at Carol's feet.

She helps him up and gives him a hug. "I'm so sorry, honey." She quickly begins looking around to see more walkers stumbling in to the area. "Let's go."

Carl stands looking through the fence at the gang of walkers huddling over his dad's body. The corpse wasn't visible, but he knew his father was under there getting torn apart. Another tear slowly slides down his cheek before he takes off to catch up with Carol.


	2. Well Known Stranger

**AN:** **I do not own The Walking Dead.** (Carl decided to go with Carol simply because he knew her. As much as he wanted to just be alone, or give up, he knew his father would not want him too. That's what drove him to tag along with Carol. Also, it is not clear to Carl whether or not there is any other survivors, he assumes at this point that only him and Carol are the only two that made it. Please Read and Review. Hope you enjoy and thanks for reading!)

Carol continues moving through the wooded environment, avoiding walkers and occasionally glancing behind her to make sure Carl was keeping up.

After all he has been through, the young Carl barely wanted to keep moving. He lost his mother, his sister, and now his dad of all people. The man that made him believe there was hope. Now he had no one. He forces himself to push forward, evading a few walkers and following and Carol from a short distance behind. He was depressed and ready to give up, but he decided to continue just because he knew that is what his father would have wanted.

Noticing Carl falling behind, she comes to a stop to wait for the boy to catch up.

"Come on, Carl. We have to keep moving."

The kid catches up to her, "Wait. . . I have to go back. ."

Carol, eagerly looking around at the incoming walkers. "What? Why?. . We can't, Carl. . If we go back to that place we're going to get ourselves killed. We need keep moving."

"Not to Terminus. It's in the woods. I can go by myself," he says resentfully.

The boy turns his back to the woman and looks at the walkers closing in. He looks for a gap in the crowd, finds one, and takes off through it.

"Carl!" she calls out as he runs off. A grave look painted on her face as she watches him weave through walkers. She looks back to the walker's in front of her. "Shit," she lets out before taking off after the boy.

Carl manages to get away from the undead, at least for the moment, and finally comes up to a clearing in the woods. It appeared to resemble the rest of the forest, other than a small wooden log distinctively placed on the ground over a bare patch of dirt. Carl drops to the ground to roll the log out of the way. His hand restlessly dig into the earth, creating a small hole.

Carol finally stumbles in to the clearing to see Carl digging.

"What are you doing?" she asked moving closer to him, but also keeping an eye on the surroundings.

Carl finally digs deep enough to see the blue bag him, his Dad, Michonne, and Daryl buried before entering Terminus.

Carol keeps an eye out on their surroundings, glancing back to Carl every few seconds as he pulls the bag from the hole and places it on the ground in front of him.

"We need to hurry," Carol says.

Tears form in his eyes as he sees the contents of the bag. On top of the supplies laid his father's chrome python. Carl grabs the signature gun and looks it over with remorse.

Carol now realizes why he insisted on going back. The gun was quite memorable. Rick was well known for it. She frowns.

Carl places the gun in his hip holster and zips the bag back up. He throws the bag over his shoulder and stands back up to set his gaze on Carol. "Alright. Let's go."

Carol walks up to the boy to place a hand on his shoulder and nods. She gives the boy a hopeful smile before moving past him to lead the way.

Carl follows, keeping his head low, letting the worn hat shadow over his eyes.

Despite living together since the beginning of everything, the communication between the two didn't exist. Carol didn't know what to say to the boy and Carl was just emotionless. The last thing he wanted to do was talk.

The two travel through the night and on in to the next day. They would take quick breaks between long hikes, but they traveled at a steady pace, staying off of mains roads and staying out of sight. The conversation between the two was light. Not saying much other than asking each other simple questions and short statements.

Finally, during the mid afternoon, they both agree to a break. They were outside of a small town at a desolate mom and pop convenience store.

Carl wanders around back to take a leak while Carol waits on the side of the building keeping watch. Carl handles his business and begins buttoning his pants when he suddenly hears Carol scream. The boy quickly pulls the python from his hip and runs back around the corner to check on Carol.


End file.
